The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-12-28
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Too Much Ado About
Small Things"

A proverb is compact wisdom, knowledge
Ia chunks library in sentence, the cleo
ITCHY OF many clouds discharged in one bolt,
river put through mill race. When Christ
quotes the proverb of the text He means to
set forth the ludicrous behavior Of those who
make O great buster about small sins and
have no appreciation Of great ones
In my text small insect and large quad
ruped are brought into comparison-a gnat
and q camel You have in museum or on the
desert seen the latter, great awkward,
sprawling creature, with back two stories
high, and stomach having collection OF
reservoirs for desert travel, an animal for
hidden to the Jews as food, and In many
literatures entitled ''the ship of the desert,
The gnat spoken of in the text is in the grub
form. 1t is born in pool or pond, after a few
weeks becomes chrysahs, ana tnen aleei Ia
few days becomes the gnat as we recognize
it. 1t is in its smallest shape, and yet lnhaolts
the water-for my text is misprlnt, and
ought to read, 'strain out gnat."
Ny text shows you the Prince Of lnconsls-
tencies. A man after long observation has
formed the suspicion that in cup OF water
he is about to drink there is a grub or the
grand parent of gnat He goes and gets q
sieve or strainer. He takes the water and
pours it through the sieve in the broad light
He says: Il would rather do anything almost
than drink this water until this larva be e1-
tirpated." This water is brought under in
auisition. The experiment is successful: The
water rushes through the. sieve and leaves
against the side of the sieve the grub or gnat.
Then the man carefully removes the insect
and drinks the water in placidity. But going
out one day, and hungry, he devours ship
of the desert" the camel, which the Jews
were forbidden to eat. The gastronomer has
no compunctions of conscience. He suffers
from no indigestion. He puts the lower jaw
under the camels fore foot, and his upper
Jaw over the hump Of the camels back. and
gives one swallow and the dromedary diSap-
pears forever. He strained out gnat; ne
swallowed camel.
While Christ's audience were yet smiling at
the appositeness and wit of his illustration
for smile they did in church unless they were
too stupid to understand the hyperbole--
Christ practically said to them: THAT is
you." PunctiliouS about small things; reck-
less about affairs Of great magnitude. No
subject ever withered under a surgeons knife
more bitterly than did the Pharisees under
Christs scalpel Of truth. As an anatomist
will take human body to pieces and put
them under microscope for examination, so
Christ finds His way to the heart of the dead
Pharisee and cuts it out and puts it under the
glass of inspection for all generations to e1-
anime Those Pharisees thought that Christ
would fatter them and compliment them,
and how they must have writhed under the
redhot words as hesaid: ''Ye fools, ye whited
sepulchres, ye blind guides, which strain out
q gnat and swallow q camel"
There are in our day a great many gnats
strained out and great many camels swal-
lowed, and it is the object Of this sermon to
sketch few persons who are extensively en-
gagged in that business.
First I remark that all those ministers Of
the Gospel are photographed in the text who
are very scrupulous about the conventionali-
ties of religion, but put no particular stress
upon matters Of vast Importance. Church
services ought to be grave and solemn. There
is no room for frivolity in religious convoca-
tion. But there are illustrations and there
are hyperboles like that of Christ in the text
that will irradiate with SMILES any intelli-
gent auditory. There are men like those blind
guides Of the text who advocate only those
things in religious service which draw the
corners Of the mouth down, and denounce all
those things which have a tendency to draw
the corners of the mouth up, and these men
will 20 to installations and to presbyteries
and to conferences and to associations, their
pockets full of fine sieves to strain out the
gnats, while in their own churches at home
every Sunday there are fifty people sound
asleep. They make their churches a great
dormitory, and their somniferous sermons
are cradle. and the drawled out hymns
lullaby, while some wakeful soul in q pew
with her fan keeps the flies Off unconscious
persons approximate. Now, say it is worse
TO sleep in church than to smile in church,
for the latter implies at least attention,
while the former implies the indifference Of
the hearers and the stupidity Of the speaker.
In old age, or from physical infirmity, or
from long watching with the sick, drow-
siness will sometimes overpower one;
but when a minister of the Gospel
looks off upon an audience and finds
infa px-ifh
drowsiness, it is time for him to give out the
doxology or pronounce the benediction. The
great fault of church services to-day is not
Too much vivacity, but too much SOM
nolence. The one Is an irritating gnat
that may be easily strained out; the other is
great, sprawling and sleepy eyed camel Of
the dry desert. In all our Sabbath schools,
in all our Bible classes, in all our pulpits, we
need to brighten up our religious message
with such Chrlst-lik vivacity as we find in
the text.
take down from my library the biogra-
phies of ministers and writers Of past ages,
inspired and uninspired, who have done the
most to bring souls to Jesus Christ, and
find that without single exception, they con
secrated their wit and their humor to Christ
Elijah used it when he advised the Baalites.
as they could not make their God respond,
telling them to call louder, as their God
might be sound asleep or gone ahuntlng.
Job used it when he said to his Self-conceltec
comforters: ''Wisiom will die with you. !"
Christ not only used it in the text, but wheI
He ironically complimented the putretied
PhariseeS, saying: 1.-THE whole need not a
physician" and when by one word He de-
scribed the cunning Of Herod, saying: go
ye, and tell that fox" Matthew Henrys
commentaries from the first page to the
last coruscated with humor as summer
clouds with heat and lightning. John Bun
yan's writings are rs full of humor as they
are Of saving truth, and there is not an aged
man here who has ever read Pilgrims Pro-
gress" who does not remember that while
reading it he smiled as often as he wept.
Chrysostom, George Herbert, Robert South,
John Wesley, George Whitefeld, Jeremy
Taylor, Rowland Hill, George G. FinDey and
all men Of the past who greatly advanced
the kingdom Of God consecrated their wit
and their humor to the cause of Christ. So
it has been in all the ages, and say to these
young theological students, who cluster in
these services Sabbath by Sabbath, sharpen
your wits as keen as cimeters and then take
them into this holy war.
1t is very short bridge between smile
and tear, a suspension bridge from eye to
lip, and it is soon crossed over, and smile IS
sometimes Just as sacred as tear. There Is
as much religion, and I think little more,
in spring morning than in starless mid
night. Religious work without any humor
or wit in tits banquet with side Of beef,
and that-raw, and no condiments, and no
dessert succeeding. People will not sit down
at such banquet. By all means remove all
frivolity and all bathos and all lightness and
all vulgarity-strain them out through the
sieve OF holy discrimination; but, on the
other hand, beware Of that monster which
overshadows the Christian church to-day,
oonveptionality, coming up from the Great
Sahara desert Of ecclesiasticism. having on
It's back q hump Of sanctimonious gloom, and
rehemently refuse to swallow that camel.
hox roorIo